Saturday, June 23, 2012 4:16:02 PMDoesn't sound crazy, just overly complicated, but I guess they have their reasons. Maybe it's the payload size. Or maybe Viking 1 and other landers didn't have enough drama for today's audiences.

Saturday, June 23, 2012 2:09:36 PMCool link. The final bit, where they use a "Sky Crane" manoeuvre to lower the Lander itself onto the surface from a hovering platform, the 20 metre height they're intending to lower from doesn't seem high enough for the intended purpose of avoiding kicking up an instrument-damaging dust cloud. If you've ever stood beneath a helicopter at that distance, you'll know how much downdraft there is to keep a heavy object airborne. Even with Mars' lower gravity (and therefore downward pull) and using on-board compressed gas rather than atmospheric lift from Mars' thin atmosphere, there'll still be a fair amount of dust from 20m.